Creating Pre-Heresy marines – part 3c: Mark III Power Armour

The bulk of the armour is complete, requiring arms, shoulder pads and helmet. Creating backpacks has been covered previously here.

Maxmini’s Steam Knight helmets have a selection of useful helmets for pre-Heresy conversions. The Mark II helmet shown here can be used as the base for a Mark III helmet with a few adjustments.

The trim around the top of the helmet needs to be cut and filed down.

Then add a ball of putty to the top of the head and begin to work it down like a basin.

The putty should come down to just above the mouthguard leaving a definite step. Do not push it smooth. The back of the helmet can be smoothed however. Then remove the sides of the helmet.

The side panels need rebuilding so that they overlap the new crest of the helmet. Cut a small square of plasticard and glue it parallel with the mouthguard.

Once the glue is set, trim the plasticard, first by cutting it parallel with the line of the bottom of the mouthguard and then removing any excess at the back.

Mark and drill a line of holes across the middle of the helmet for studs, starting just above the eyes. You should be able to fit 4-5 holes.

Glue beads into the holes.

Finally add small plasticard discs to the side of the helmet. Plastic rod or a leather punch will make holes small enough to suit the scale of the helmet.

Compose the helmet with the rest of the body to admire your handy work so far!

Next the armour needs some shoulder pads. Using standard issue pads with a trim, mark dots where you want studs, starting with the corners and center top and space the dots equally between these points.

When you are happy with the placing, begin to cut small holes into the pads with a sharp scalpel or craft knife and then glue in small beads, one strip at a time.

Complete the rest of the pad once the glue has set.

When both pads are completed, compose them with your marine to behold the mass of studs!

For the arms, using gloves Chaos Space Marine arms, remove any spikes or chaotic insignia. For this example I’ve used boltgun arms for a firing stance.

The first thing you will notice is that all the work on the chest is now hidden, so you may want to repose the arms or equip the marine differently. If you need boltgun marines, you can skip a few stops on the torso where the arms and gun hide the area to save some effort and time.